10-03-2021 Bureau Report NEW DELHI/ LONDON: India has rebuked UK MPs for criticizing its handling of long-running farmers’ protests in Delhi. Several Labour, Liberal Democrat and Scottish National Party MPs on Monday expressed concern over the safety of protesters and the status of press freedom in India. But India’s High …
Read More »Bangladeshi TV channel hires country’s first Eunuch News Anchor
10-03-2021 DHAKA: A news channel in Bangladesh has made history by hiring the first-ever transgender news anchor in the country. After 29-year-old Tashnuva Anan Shishir was given a chance to read the news for the first time, she got so emotional; she could not hold back her tears. Tashnuva said …
Read More »127 Indian Muslims charged with ‘terror’ acquitted after 19 years
09-03-2021 Bureau Report NEW DELHI/ KARACHI: On the night of December 26, 2001, Mohammad Abdul Hai boarded a train from Jodhpur in northwestern India’s Rajasthan state to Surat city in neighboring Gujarat to attend a three-day seminar on Muslim education. The seminar was organized by the All India Minority Education …
Read More »Australian State launches inquiry into colonization
09-03-2021 Bureau Report MELBOURNE: The Australian state of Victoria has announced an inquiry into the impact of colonization on Aboriginal people, the first probe of its kind nationally. Aboriginal Australians were dispossessed of their land after British settlement in 1788 and have since endured systemic injustices. Unlike some other Commonwealth …
Read More »China launches world’s first virus passport
09-03-2021 BEIJING: In a first, China on Monday launched a health certificate program, or a virus passport, for domestic travelers taking the lead in calls for such an initiative. The digital certificate, which shows a user’s vaccination status and virus test results, is available for Chinese citizens via a program …
Read More »Protesters demand justice for George Floyd
09-03-2021 MINNEAPOLIS: A few hundred demonstrators gathered on Monday outside the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis, where the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin, charged in the death of George Floyd, is set to begin this month. Many protesters expressed anxiety about whether Chauvin would be convicted in …
Read More »Int’l Women’s Day 2021 celebrations around the world
08-03-2021 LONDON/ PARIS/ NEW YORK/ CANBERRA/ ISLAMABAD/ NEW DELHI: Change comes from challenge and that is the message organizers of International Women’s Day 2021 hope to trumpet Monday. “A challenged world is an alert world,” the International Women’s Day website says. “We can all choose to challenge and call out gender …
Read More »Pak Army Chief meets US Special Envoy for Afghanistan
08-03-2021 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report RAWALPINDI/ ISLAMABAD/ KABUL/ DOHA/ WASHINGTON: Pakistani Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Monday met US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad and General Austin Scott Miller, the Commander Resolute Support Mission Afghanistan, at the General Headquarters. According to …
Read More »Meghan & Harry’s much-anticipated interview airs in US
08-03-2021 LONDON: The allegation that there were discussions in the palace about how dark Meghan’s first baby might be is a devastating one. This is heading into ‘worst-case scenario’ territory for the palace. It is worth remembering we are currently only getting one side of the story. And Meghan has …
Read More »Swiss ‘burqa ban’ accepted by slim majority
08-03-2021 BERN: Swiss voters have narrowly approved a proposal to ban face coverings in a decision that critics branded Islamophobic and sexist. Official results showed that 51.2 percent of voters, and a majority of federal Switzerland’s cantons, supported the proposal. Some 1,426,992 voters were in favour of the ban, while …
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